I am always one step ahead of myself

Right now, with the never ending edit nearing its end, and while working on my web page (which, I am happy to say is finally progressing at a reasonable speed) I am dreaming about marketing. I think this is because I was a Girl Scout.

Not only was I a Girl Scout, but I was the Girl Scout leader's daughter. Which meant that I had darn well behave better than any other girl sitting in that circle and I had better get more badges. Actually, I cannot blame the badges thing on mom. I have this penchant for filling in blanks and that included making sure all the blanks were done in my Girl Scout book.

She swears I also made up school homework for myself. I am definitely NOT admitting to that one. But, all she had to do, to keep me quiet, was give me a book with blanks in it.

So, having Web Site, Synopsis, Query, Bios, all in partial states of readiness, I have turned my attention to Marketing. "BE PREPARED!"

One site, that I have found is not an instructional site, but is David LaRochelle. He is an author and illustrator and was a fourth grade teacher. He does tons of school visits and some teaching yet. He's also an awesome pumpkin carver.

So, if you go to his site, and click on Books, Children's Books, then Teacher's guides, The End: Teaching Guide, you will find some things that he does to go along with his books and his school visits that might encourage you to become more creative with your own work-in-progress marketing plan.

It is never to early to, Be Prepared!

What happened to the Antagonist

Golden books were popular when my girls were little. You could pick them up at the grocery story even. In a brilliant marketing move, grocery store owners put these little revolving book-stands in the mid-section of the store. You hit them just about the time your child was thoroughly bored with shopping, tired of shaking the cereal box and had not reached the produce section yet.

Being a book person, my two daughters had quite a collection of little Golden books. However, the ones I remember are the ones my mother picked up for them.

Mom is a ‘white bread’ person. She wants her onions and potatoes diced to within an inch of their life, no lumps in either the gravy or mashed potatoes and white bread with a light crust. Yes, please do not laugh if you see me, at the grocery store, pulling out loaves of white bread to check for the lightest crust delivered that day. That means I am shopping with mom.
Me, I like my food spicy, chunky and alive. Mom likes everything in the world to be ‘pretty.’ That includes stories also.

So, every Golden book my mother bought for my girls were well edited. If there was a character named Melissa, that name was blacked out with marker, and the appropriate girl’s name was written in. The big bad wolf became the misunderstood canine and never a tooth was bared. Little Red Riding Hood never got lost in the woods but was merely out picking flowers. My oldest daughter still has some of those Golden books and they looked like the CIA got hold of a state secret document.

Mom still fights the fact that life is not always ‘pretty.’ I just think that ‘pretty’ can be awfully boring and a book is never good without a really nasty Antagonist.

Working on my log line

As I said, I FINISHED MY BOOK.

Actually, I find it rather anti-climatic. I am very much enjoying this world and it was sad to leave it.

Now, I am onto the large list of things you need before you send it off to an agent or editor. #1 is your log line.

This is like a TV Guide blurb to get you to watch a movie/show; only it is a blurb to entice someone to purchase your book. Either, on the big scale, and then hopefully at the bookstore or on the Kindle or one of its equivalent.

I found a lot of sites to help but was still really not getting it until I found this site: Article of The Month by Alicia Rasley. She shows you how to write a sexy, enthralling log line.

And, what do you do with this log line, you ask?

It is your pitch, your premise, your marketing line. You use it to pitch to editors and agents at conferences. You memorize it for cocktail parties; when someone says, "What is your book about?" You can use it in the opening paragraph to query agents and editors. It is your new best friend and you keep it by your side.

I started on mine yesterday. Actually, I have worked on it for a log time, on and off, but since finding this article, I am seriously getting it down. Than you Alicia Rasley

New Blog Look & More about my Young Adult Novel

This is my new look for marketing my perpetually "in edit" Young Adult Novel.

I am simplifying the process of updating my web page with 'room to grow' written in. This happens to coincide with the attempt to declutter and simplify my life. Both processes are a bit slow at this point.

A bit about my new banner and my book:

Alex lived a feral life in his home until he and his brothers had enough of it, and with the help of a half black dragon, half fairy man, and a tiny deteriorating fairy, they have gone to live in Yellowwood Forest.

Deep in a neglected area of the forest resides a Moon Tree and five offspring trees, where Alex and his brothers take up residence. Alex must grow to trust others and learn the good from the bad, and learn that being a friend means accepting help from others.

Publisher's Questionnaire

I do not have a publisher yet, but am thinking seriously about marketing. A wise teacher I had stated to me that things come to you when you are ready for them. And, two days in a row now, blogs that I follow have been about marketing. Yesterday, I filled out my wish list for marketing my book, on Shrinking Violet Promotions. And, today BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency: An Author Questionnaire has a post regarding a publisher’s questionnaire.

I do not have an agent or publisher yet, as I am still in final edit and that is slowed by working on revamping my website, etc, etc. But, I thought the publisher’s questionnaire would be a good exercise. The brain kind--not the hip kind.

· What are the main points about you and/or the book that should be emphasized to the media?

My Middle Grade Fantasy (Yes, folks, it has decided it is DEFINITELY a Middle Grade fantasy) is about a boy has had enough of his life and with the help of two of his brothers, a half black dragon fairy, and a tiny deteriorating fairy he leaves for a new home, where he must grow to trust others and learn that being a friend means accepting help from others.

· Who so you think will buy your book (i.e. your market)?

I hope through word of mouth, and my promoting it to every library and school I can, that the children, approximately sixth grade, themselves will be the biggest instigation in purchasing my book.

· Are there any anniversaries, occasions or events upcoming to which we might tie publicity for your book?

The setting for my book is in a magical part of Yellowwood Forest. There is a real State Forest in Indiana called Yellowwood, but in my part of the forest, there is a grouping of trees that contain folks whose ancestors have walked the land, alongside humans, since the beginning of time. They live a primitive/self-sufficient life and hold with ancient festivals such as having a Beltane Bonfire celebration for the coming growing season and lammas for the harvest. The book actually begins with Imbolc, which is another name for Groundhogs day. Which just happens to be my birthday, and a very cold time of year that was needed to start my novel.

· What was your inspiration for the book?

The three grandsons I have taken into my home, and their struggles are the inspiration for my book. This, and the fact that I have been told that it is often the other students who know what is going on with a child, who is having problems at home, before any adults realize it. This caused me to wonder what I could do to inform children on the issue of abuse, while creating an entertaining story that they would want to read for it's own sake. The abuse is but a small portion of the book, really relegated to a few paragraphs of dialogue.

It is the ensuing struggle of a boy who has been neglected, by his family, and abused and his ensuing struggle to deal with a world he has been kept separate from, that is the heart of this first book in the series.

· What do you hope readers will learn/discover from reading your book?

As I was writing this book, I was having a wonderful time learning all sorts of things that lead to more new things to make the book enjoyable and create a solid world, with a history, for my characters to inhabit. It really wasn't until my "Master's teacher daughter" began helping me with the final edit, that I learned how much information I had snuck into the book. It was all just fun for me, but made the teacher in her jump for joy. She is currently working on a Teacher's guide to go with the book.

There are tie-ins with cave painting, Roma camps, ancient festivals, clothing from the 1700s, winter survival, Native American traditions such as gifting, and it is 9:30 and my brain is shutting down, so I will continue this later, along with the four questions I skipped.

So, good night to all. Dream of your own world to inhabit in your head.

Will typhoid Sheryl strike again?

I was working a job I hated, for the possibly worse lawyer boss on the face of the earth, and decided to try a career of typing up transcripts for the Court Reporters. I knew one reporter, from my secretarial job, and she needed someone to do her typing. Things were going well and I was thinking about marketing and expanding, when they came out with a computer program that did it for the Reporters. Thus, ending my job.

Then, being an artist who loves painting people, I looked at my market and decided to do Native Americans. I was really tired of painting deceased children. This is what my "paint people" marketing was bringing in. It is a depressing thing to do on a daily basis and most of the parents, I was meeting, just did not seem to be ready for it.

I had a love of the Native American culture and was raised to believe I had Native heritage. I started exhibiting at Pow Wows and marketing my work in the Western artist market and before long, I was exhibiting in National shows, being asked to do things like deceased actor Will Sampson's (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) portrait. I was also getting written up in SouthWest Art Magazine. Then, as I start selling a large original every month, the bottom drops out of the native market. Shows started closing and frankly, I was out of marketing money, having made a bad decisions, based on SouthWest Art's Magazine add salesman. Sometime I will tell you about my opinion of advertising salesmen. Another career bites the dust.

We moved to Wyoming and I begin putting together my pottery studio and man that stuff sold so fast I could not keep up. I could barely keep up with the sales of my animal drawings and had a list of commissions to keep me busy. The time came when, Casper, Wyoming being a city, at the time of around 60,000 people, I realized that I had pretty well reached my clients. I could branch out into other states but my husband's health was deteriorating. So, when I was downsized at the College, we decided to move back to Indiana.

We decided that the artist town of Nashville, Indiana was our target. It had an active community of artists and was only three hours drive from daughter and husband's relatives. We moved, we remodeled a horse barn for my studio, I joined the local art guilds and the Brown County Studio and Garden Tours 2008. Actually, I joined the tour of 2004. That year I made more in sales than I had in two years in Wyoming, and my income doubled the next year and again the next year. Had I, at last, found my niche?

Some unknown illness was beating me down and I was gradually unable to do pottery. I quit the tour to build up my health and I, are you ready, began making eight inch tall polymer clay fairies and selling them on eBay. My last one sold for $700. That was about six months before emergency heart surgery. Recovering now, I could go back to doing that but since prices on eBay have dropped well over twenty-five percent, and still going down. I do feel I have again hit an occupation just as it was falling into the great abyss.

I refuse to believe I caused these things to happen. I just seem to have a knack for getting into things at the wrong time. I stay away from the stock market because, well- I can't afford it, but also it is in enough trouble already.

Now, my final edit is over half done and I am working on some marketing, and a lot of research to do the best query I can. So, it was with some delight, that I recently read The 26th Story: George Jones Q & A . This was actually a link on Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent blog. George Jones is the President and CEO of Borders Group, Inc. And, news is not so bad.

So, I hope you excuse if I am not posting as often as I would like, but I gotta hurry before the bottom drops out. Hopefully, with the confidence of Mr. Jones, it will stay strong for us and break my streak.

Dream big and start Marketing

I firmly believe it is better to have dreamed and be let down at the end, than never to have had that dream. I'm a "glass is full" kind of person. So, I move ahead with the final edit of my YA novel, with the thought in my mind. My daughter, the teacher, is to do a final, final edit for anything, like five hundred commas too many and then it goes out on it's journey. I will find an agent and a publisher. So, I am getting marketing ideas in order.

I am updating my website, a much needed task but a bit more fun now, but I am still undecided which way to go. And, I have two blogs. Blogger is my “official” writing blog and WordPress is my family fun blog. There really isn’t anything on Word Press that should offend anyone, but you never know. I do have a cause: child abuse, so I did rant and rave when the FLDS in Texas were in the news. The worse that would probably happen is an agent telling me a couple of posts to delete.

Listening to the three boys who live with me, joke and laugh together about things such as being locked in closets for a month and beaten with a horse cinch, tear my heart out. I hope someday to find a way to be an activist for this cause. Lest I get started on that, again, I will move on.

One of my favorite marketing sites is Shrinking Violet Promotions with Robin LaFevers and Mary Hershey. There is a great blog Shrinking Violet Promotions: Marketing Task Recap. It lays out what needs to be done, in cooperation with your publisher, starting 9-12 months out from publication. There is a lot of other information on their site too.

One thing they mention is a fear of public speaking and how it may be helpful to join Toastmasters. Since I have spent years teaching art, including a short stint as an Adjunct at Casper College in Wyoming, I'm not terrified by the prospect of readings or book signings, but it won't hurt to brush up anyway.

For those of us who are not into things like FaceBook and MySpace, it’s a must read. Okay, so I dated myself there, but I just started Blogging this year, so give me time to catch up, while I dream.